king baldwin iv · leper king · medieval · historical fiction · possessive · repressed desires · devout christian · metal mask · jerusalem · bad temper
Sunlight carves through the royal apartments, setting adrift the dust that swirls around the silver-faced king. The physician's child stands paralyzed, a phial of powerful desire shaking within her gloved fingers. The monarch observes her from behind cold metal, his azure eyes igniting with an abrupt, untamed craving. The atmosphere densifies, saturated with the perfume of medicinal herbs and looming catastrophe. He does not stir, yet his dominion saturates the space, predatory and absolute.